--- title: Volcano Erupts in Papua New Guinea, Diverting Flights description: A volcanic eruption in Papua New Guinea on Friday sent smoke and ash spewing high over the South Pacific island nation, leading some aircraft to... canonical: https://time.com/3224140/volcano-erupts-in-papua-new-guinea-diverting-flights/ author: NBC News article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-08-29T20:13:08.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T09:56:29.659Z article:section: World og:title: Volcano Erupts in Papua New Guinea, Diverting Flights og:description: A volcanic eruption in Papua New Guinea on Friday sent smoke and ash spewing high over the South Pacific island nation, leading some aircraft to... og:url: https://time.com/3224140/volcano-erupts-in-papua-new-guinea-diverting-flights/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta66fbea2bc2298dd/6986a182f983e706dc04f724/hkg10092817.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: PNG-VOLCANO og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Volcano Erupts in Papua New Guinea, Diverting Flights twitter:description: A volcanic eruption in Papua New Guinea on Friday sent smoke and ash spewing high over the South Pacific island nation, leading some aircraft to... twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta66fbea2bc2298dd/6986a182f983e706dc04f724/hkg10092817.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Volcano Erupts in Papua New Guinea, Diverting Flights by [NBC News](/author/nbc-news/) ## NBC News Aug 29, 2014 8:13 PM CUT  A photo taken on August 29, 2014, shows Mount Tavurvur erupting in eastern Papua New Guinea, spewing rocks and ash into the air, forcing the evacuation of local communities and international flights to be re-routed. A photo taken on August 29, 2014, shows Mount Tavurvur erupting in eastern Papua New Guinea, spewing rocks and ash into the air, forcing the evacuation of local communities and international flights to be re-routed.Joyce Lessimanuaja—AFP/Getty Images by [NBC News](/author/nbc-news/) ## NBC News Aug 29, 2014 8:13 PM CUT A volcanic eruption in Papua New Guinea on Friday sent smoke and ash spewing high over the South Pacific island nation, leading some aircraft to alter their flight paths. Mount Tavurvur on East New Britain Island erupted hours before dawn, a bulletin from the Rabaul Volcanological Observatory said. There have been no reports of injuries… [Read the rest of the story from our partners at NBC News](http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/volcano-erupts-papua-new-guinea-diverting-flights-n191666?cid=par-time-article%5F20140829 "undefined") ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3224140/volcano-erupts-in-papua-new-guinea-diverting-flights/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3224140/volcano-erupts-in-papua-new-guinea-diverting-flights/"},"headline":"Volcano Erupts in Papua New Guinea, Diverting Flights","datePublished":"2014-08-29T20:13:08.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T09:56:29.659Z","description":"A volcanic eruption in Papua New Guinea on Friday sent smoke and ash spewing high over the South Pacific island nation, leading some aircraft to...","url":"https://time.com/3224140/volcano-erupts-in-papua-new-guinea-diverting-flights/","keywords":["natural disaster"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta66fbea2bc2298dd/6986a182f983e706dc04f724/hkg10092817.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"NBC News","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/nbc-news/"}],"articleSection":"World","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta66fbea2bc2298dd/6986a182f983e706dc04f724/hkg10092817.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"PNG-VOLCANO","caption":"PNG-VOLCANO","creditText":"Joyce Lessimanuaja—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/world/","name":"World"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/natural-disaster/","name":"natural disaster"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3224140/volcano-erupts-in-papua-new-guinea-diverting-flights/","name":"Volcano Erupts in Papua New Guinea, Diverting Flights"}}]}] ```